Random Recollections of 2021, the Blackjack Year

Blackjack is a casino banking game, the most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One.

Speaking of casino banking games...
One thing for sure this year, the Fed created trillions of USD for oligarchs and corporations to buy their own stock driving the market to ever new highs as the US economy is in free fall and expanding the already obscene inequality gap to new highs as well.

A buyback is when executives direct their company to purchase shares of their own stock to drive up share prices. This reduces the number of shares, raising the price and putting cash in the hands of shareholders, including the company’s own executives because they get paid mostly in stock. S&P 500 firms hit a record in the third quarter of this year, spending $225 billion to repurchase their own stock.
...Share buybacks are associated with layoffs and depressed wages. After two Boeing Max 737 planes crashed within five months of each other in 2019, it was revealed that Boeing had recently authorized a massive $20 billion in stock buybacks at the expense of testing and safety investments. Companies are even borrowing money to pay for their buybacks.

Max and Stacy's guest in the clip below explains that in order to manufacture computer chips in the US, the chip manufacturer wants a grant (our tax dollars) to build a plant in the US, despite their own stock buy back for a similar price as their grant request. You can't make up.

There's talk of taxing their profits, but I bet it is unlikely given that our politicians have been purchased by the very ones who should be taxed.

Many people are under the mistaken notion that the Federal Reserve is a government agency...wrong, it is a coalition of central banks.

A plan for a central banking system to be owned by the banks themselves, a system which would organize the nation's banks into a private cartel that would have sole control over the money supply itself.

Now who do you really think they serve?
This has been going on for a century or so, but under cover of the COVID pandemic it has been on steroids for the last two years.

I can't blame anyone who thinks our elections are rigged. We've watch Bernie cheated of the nomination twice. Saw Gore win and lose the election because brother Bushy was governor of Florida. Kerry probably lost because if rigging in Ohio. I don't trust our elections.

Then there's non-stop "Russia hacked our elections"...a blatant lie and misdirection (clearly debunked this year). And then these same russiagaters blame the Trumpeteers for thinking the election was stolen by Brandon Joementia (or is it Jomentia Brandon)?

So, a year ago we had the capitol riots, as people thought the election was stolen. In fairness, Trump was drawing huge crowds and Jomentia was hiding in his basement (reminiscent of the $hill and Bernie in 2016).

Now the corpradims are prosecuting these mostly working class folks that stormed the capitol in outrage the election was stolen. However, for me, the whole episode doesn't pass a smell test. Only six months before at the BLM protest in DC the city was packed with military and police presence.

Then last January, the few police present opened the capitol up for the protesters? This seems as phony as Epstein's faked suicide. The fact that the police were barely called to explain (and in fact the Capitol police budget was increased) yet it is the protesters being prosecuted, continues to suggest an inside job to me.

On Jan 6, 2021...
https://bandclubculture.com/2021/12/17/where-were-the-u-s-capitol-police...

Some United States Capitol Police (USCP) officers were teleworking, some riot gear was locked in a bus or shattered upon impact after being improperly stored, and only a couple hundred of the 1,879 sworn officers were inside the Capitol Building, despite intelligence showing the protests might get heated on January 6th, 2021.

Even with a $464 million-a-year budget and nearly 2,000 officers, the USCP was unable to stop a breach of the Capitol by protestors who carried no guns. The USCPs budget is greater than many large metropolitan cities, including Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Columbus, Ohio.

Today, Congress plans to give the USCP which has admitted to a lack of preparation, training, communication, and equipment, an additional ~$150 million, bringing its budget to over $600 million for fiscal year 2022.

YMMV, but I'm thinking this was purposeful.

But all news was subsumed by COVID. Critical thinking abilities were shattered by MSM COVID fear mongering...including some of mine. They rolled out the vaccines, and I got in line. Took the Moderna, one in March and the second in April. In retrospect I'm grateful we were not victims of the many adverse reactions...at least not yet, because long term effects remain unknown.

The vax gave us a sense of protection ...for ourselves and others. We felt safe enough to do a bit of local travel... to play music and visit buddies last spring, vacation in Georgia early summer, and Florida in the fall. So, all worked out well, but I feel misled...about vaccine safety, efficacy (especially with delta and omicron), and the real disease data. The US PCR test delivers way too many false positives. The flu will trigger the COVID test. Deaths have been inflated by counting anyone WITH COVID as death by COVID. They've been trying to scare us so they can control us. I can't help that being my big take away for the year.

Don't believe the "Merry Crisis and Happy New Fear" narrative TPTB are trying to pedal.

Jimmy and RFK have a good discussion about what has transpired. I saw the 45 minute version on YouTube but..
in case Youtube takes it down, here's a longer version on Rumble 1+ hour)

From my perspective, under the cover of COVID, TPTB seek to control us by:
owning the MSM narrative and canceling/silencing anyone who doesn't sing their chorus,
closing down small business and promoting the large chains,
maximizing the already obscene surveillance state to insure compliance,
requiring leaky vaccines which don't completely prevent disease nor spread by mandate,
Requiring vaccination passports in many countries and some parts of the US.
...all while promoting obscene profits for big pharma,
endless wars and aggression,
sanctions on steroids (basically siege warfare),
accelerating environmental damage/extraction and profiteering (while claiming to combat the climate chaos).
{As an aside I liked the new netflix pic...don't look up (2 min trailer)

Two astronomers go on a media tour to warn humankind of a planet-killing comet hurtling toward Earth. The response from a distracted world: Meh.}
Not GREAT, but pretty good allegory for climate chaos and COVID and at least addresses the trivial approach of media and its ability to mislead and manipulate.
...

The extradition of Assange is a dangerous precedent. Therefore we demand from the UK and US governments:
Don’t extradite!
Drop all charges!
#FreeAssange!

For 10 years now the USA has been chasing journalist and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. In doing so, they are not shy in violating the rule of law and human rights.

The determination is clear. Every journalist should be discouraged from reporting facts that may not be convenient for the USA. That is why the trial... is not only about the extradition of Julian Assange. Our free press, and therefore also our democracy, are in serious dangers, if the USA is not put in its place.

The cancel culture has been enhanced by COVID, but nowhere is it more evident than the case of Julian Assange. It seems like fiction to literally torture a journalist for revealing US war crimes, but it is real and should be the story of the year. What do you hear on MSM?...crickets. Amy at least featured a discussion about Julian this week, Video or text.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges discuss mass surveillance, government secrecy, internet freedom and U.S. attempts to extradite and prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

But the real coverage has been on consortiumnews.

The imprisoned publisher must first ask the High Court that his appeal to the Supreme Court be approved as a point of law of general public importance.

Chris has been covering Julian as well.
He discusses the torture of Julian Assange with his father, John Shipton.

Julian Assange committed empire’s greatest sin. He exposed it as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, callous disregard for human life, rampant corruption and innumerable war crimes. Republican or Democrat. Conservative or Labour. Trump or Biden. It does not matter. The goons who oversee the empire sing from the same Satanic songbook. Empires always kill those who inflict deep and serious wounds.

That Assange, who is in precarious physical and psychological health and who suffered a stroke during court video proceedings on October 27, has been condemned to death should not come as a surprise. The ten years he has been detained, seven in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and nearly three in the high security Belmarsh prison, were accompanied with a lack of sunlight and exercise and unrelenting threats, pressure, anxiety and stress. “His eyes were out of sync, his right eyelid would not close, his memory was blurry,” his fiancé Stella Moris said of the stroke.

His steady physical and psychological deterioration has led to hallucinations and depression. He takes antidepressant medication and the antipsychotic quetiapine. He has been observed pacing his cell until he collapses, punching himself in the face and banging his head against the wall. He has spent weeks in the medical wing of Belmarsh. Prison authorities found “half of a razor blade” hidden under his socks. He has repeatedly called the suicide hotline run by the Samaritans because he thought about killing himself “hundreds of times a day.” The executioners have not yet completed their grim work. Toussaint L’Ouverture, who led the Haitian independence movement, the only successful slave revolt in human history, was physically destroyed in the same manner, locked by the French in an unheated and cramped prison cell and left to die of exhaustion, malnutrition, apoplexy, pneumonia and probably tuberculosis. And, unless we mobilize to halt this judicial execution, it will be Assange’s fate as well.

Chris Hedges discusses the British High Court ruling to allow the extradition of Julian Assange to go ahead with Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief, Consortium News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VzFJ9csons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLYwmWraxHA
Chris Hedges discusses The Trial of Julian Assange, a new book by Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTVnv5NWkKU
Chris Hedges talks to documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist John Pilger about the upcoming appeals hearing in London for the Julian Assange case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDI8Ro4Ba5c

But in general this US attack on journalism remains unreported.

And we haven't even talked about US warmongering. A story not just this year, but it seems every year I can recall. So here at the end of this year the US is aggressively pushing China and Russia to war. All I can imagine is that the greed has become such a sickness that planetary destruction is acceptable if the MIC (et al) garners enough profit. Here again, just like for the drug companies, our captured media system has many if not most citizens we believing we need to defend Taiwan and Ukraine just like there were WMD in Iraq...it's déjà vu all over again.

Your guess is as good as mine how this provocation of both China and Russia will play out. Other than his accusation that China was promoting the aggression I found Max and Stacy's guest insightful. Max and Stacy chat to Dan Collins, an entrepreneur and former auto executive who lived in China for 20 years. (25 min)

He clearly explains, the US is a warehouse state, China is the world's manufacturing center. My thought is China became the dominant nation in the world after the Alaska meeting with bleeping Blinking
https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/along-the-watchtower/2021/...

2022 — Year of Major Power Conflict Over Ukraine

Russia says Europe must think about the real prospect of turning their continent into a field of military confrontation like that which existed at the height of the Cold War, writes Scott Ritter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he wanted "concrete agreements" from NATO that it would not expand eastwards, as tensions rise over Russian troops near the Ukrainian border. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crYKdV2yc-Q (3 min)

I thought this was the season of peace... where is the peace movement?

Peace through music...A Global Event for the Environment
200+ Artists Unite to Save Our Planet and promote peace (1 hour)

Featuring performances by Baaba Maal, Ben Harper, Black Pumas, Derek Truck & Susan Tedeschi, Giovanni Hidalgo, Jack Johnson, Jake Shimabukuro, John Paul Jones, Keb' Mo', Lee Oskar, Liniker, Mickey Hart, Paula Fuga, Rhiannon Giddens, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Rosanne Cash, Sara Bareilles, Sikiru Adepoju, Slash, Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Taj Mahal, The Lumineers, The Pocket Queen, Tony Kanal (No Doubt), Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Zakir Hussain and more. Narrated by Robbie Robertson and Sir David Attenborough.

All I can say is bring on the peace. It is the message for 2022!

So of course there were many other stories this year. There was Gabby and Brian's nonstop news porn, and the Rittenhouse trial and much more. I hope you'll include stories I missed in the comments below.
James Corbett focuses on "the great reset" as the story the year.
Krystal had an interesting take on media's biggest lies of the year and they conclude their show with the question, Will 2022 Be Better For YOU?

I want to leave you with a message from Roger Waters...
A revolutionary and powerful speech from iconic figures: Roger Waters, John Lennon, Edward Snowden, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison on power, social change and challenging authority.
“In an authoritarian state, rights derive from the state and are granted to the people. In a free state, rights derive from the people and are granted to the state.”
― Edward Snowden, Permanent Record

My thought is we need to make sure 2022 is better. Stand up against the authoritarianism, practice random acts of kindness, minimize your footprint and place yourself in nature as much as possible, speak out against US aggression, be the person you want to be... free to choose your path. Happy New Year, y'all!